This is a place where I will show my journey of discovery as I attempt new recipes in cooking & baking, as well as making cute Bento's.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Daring Bakers November Challenge

Can we say Noobs ARE USSo this is my first challenge as a daring baker, and yes challenge it was.We were given the recipe for a wonderful homemade potato bread.

We all had to follow the same recipe, and the only changes you could make was how you shaped your bread, and seasoned it.All seasonings had to be savory, no dessert.I decided to make one loaf, a foccaccia loaf, and some mini pizzas.I used Yukon Gold potato's and boiled them the night before to save on time.

The dough was incredibly sticky. Much more then I expected and I had lots of problems kneading it. The real disaster came though when I put it in my large mixing bowl to rise. Me thinking oh the heat from the oven will help the yeast rise better sat the bowl on top of the stove above the oven.Yes this is the part where you all yell at the screen "no don't do that" or "what in the world were you thinking"Apparently I wasn't thinking very well, because my plastic bowl melted. It cooked the bottom of the dough rising in the bowl, and I almost set my kitchen on fire.So i cut off the bottom of the dough that had cooked, and put the rest back into the steel bowl it originally was mixed in.

It looked like disaster though had been averted and I continued on in spite of the melted plastic smoke in my kitchen. Above is the mini pizza's. I managed to burn the cheese on them, and peeled it off. Luckily the bread part was fine, so i just seasoned it and used them in bento's i made for my family that was coming to visit for Thanksgiving.

This is the wonderfully incredibly sticky potato dough i like the potato mushed chunks in it.

My Foccaccia bread was drizzled with an egg wash and Hazelnut oil. (I wanted to try something different) I put dried rosemary, ground salt, and Fresh chopped garlic on it. It turned out beautiful smelled good, and no one in my family would eat it. Most of it got thrown away.

My potato loaf was a bit overcooked on the top. It also didn't rise as much as I had hoped but over all was pretty good.

Oh my poor sweet potato bread.I was very excited about this challenge and felt like it was definitely a growing experience. I'm pretty sure though I will never ever make this recipe for potato bread again.Which is kind of sad since I'm a very strong lover of potatoes.

Thankyou Everyone!! I was so suprised to get so many wonderful comments. It was a hard project, but don't get me wrong I totally felt it was worth it. I also learned a lot. Um... specifically invest in all metal or ceramic mixing bowls lol.I love Daring Bakers!!

Perserverance is one of the hallmarks of a daring baker, and you've shown your stick-to-it-iveness in spades with this one. Congratulations, and welcome to the insanity. In December let's try not to set fire to anything, 'k? :)

Glad you avoided the kitchen fire and good for you that you salvaged the rest of the dough. The foccacia looks beautiful...too bad your family didn't care for it, but you did a great job. You have true Daring Baker spirit! Glad you are a Daring Baker.

Melting bowls, nearly setting the kitchen on fire. You Daring Baker you! Can't believe your family didn't eat the focaccia. Looks great, even the well done loaf! Well done on your first challenge Angel.